


Holographic Wolf

by twilightfire



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Disregard of Eleventh Doctor Canon, F/M, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mentally Instable Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-11
Updated: 2012-03-11
Packaged: 2017-11-01 19:59:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/360653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilightfire/pseuds/twilightfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After years without Rose, the Doctor comes up with a way to bring her back. Well…sort of. In typical Doctor fashion, however, he fails to think of the repercussions of a TARDIS-generated Rose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holographic Wolf

Darkness. Complete and total darkness enveloped her. Rose never had been a fan of dark enclosed spaces, but while it was completely pitch black, she had a feeling of infinite space, as if she was the centre of the universe in the midst of a multi-galaxy blackout.

There was a sense of weightlessness as well, almost as if she was a fluffy white cloud floating along in the sky. Rose could not quite decide whether that was a good thing or not.

The darkness began to fade away, slowly, bit by bit, almost as if it was reluctant to go. The weightlessness stayed, however, and as her sight slowly returned to her the sound of odd beeping floated to her ears, as well as a soft, familiar song.

… _I bring life…_

Interrupting the peacefulness of the song, and the comfort of the beeping, the sound of voices pierced the fog in her mind.

"…I can't…failure…stupid ape!"

"…Not a technician…tried…go back to my team?"

"No! Not until…bring my Rose back…"

The voices were familiar, quickly bringing her to consciousness. As she blinked rapidly, the back of both Jack's and the Doctor's heads finally became visible to her still-bleary eyes. Jack appeared to be balding in the back, she noted in her mind, and…was that a cane in the Doctor's hand? What was going on? The last thing she remembered was being trapped in the alternate dimension, and celebrating Tony's first birthday. After that, it was all a blank. She tried to hold in her panic. And…was it just her, or did they both seem shorter?

" _Jack! Doctor!"_

Neither of the men turned at the sound of her voice. Was she dead? She must be, after all, Jack was dead, and he was standing right in front of her, leaned over the TARDIS console. Must be hell, because a balding Jack? Definitely not heaven material.

" _Oh god. I've died and gone to hell. Doctor!"_

Panic was a bad thing. She was a Tyler, and Tylers do not panic.

Rose looked down at herself, and stared at her hand intently. Her hand flickered in and out of sight.

She panicked.

_"Doctor! I'm dead. I just know it. Dead and gone to hell. Is there a special TARDIS hell for companions and Doctors? Oh, bollocks, Mum is going to kill me for dying and going to a different afterlife. Shite. Doctor!"_

"Doctor, there's nothing I can do. I may be a fixed point in time, but that does not improve my knowledge of TARDIS holographic technology. I've been here for years, Doctor, maybe we should just let her go?"

"Absolutely not!" the Doctor turned angrily, and froze at the sight of a flickering, glowing Rose in front of him, floating about three feet off the floor. Her eyes glowed with the golden light of the Time Vortex, and it was so beautiful and so horrible at once. She looked just like she did when she was the Bad Wolf.

"My Rose…" he breathed in shock, his eyes filling with love for her.

Rose smiled, but in the back of her eyes he could see a hint of panic. Her mouth moved, but no sound emerged.

Jack turned around at his words, his smile growing when he saw her.

"Why can't she talk?" yelled the Doctor, turning to Jack angrily. "Make her talk!"

Jack turned back to the console, and began to fiddle with several of the controls. He turned back to look at her expectantly.

"… _Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-eight bottles of beer…"_ Rose sang.

Rose appeared to be singing, but there was still no sound. Jack turned and gave with console a swift kick.

"…Take one down and pass it around, ninety-seven bottles of beer on the wall…" Rose's voice emerged from all over the TARDIS, with a slight echo to it. However, she promptly disappeared from view. The singing faltered and faded away.

"Rose!"

"Am I echoing? Echo! Echo!" Rose's voice echoed throughout the TARDIS.

"Rose?"

"What?" There was a brief silence. "Oh god, I disappeared! Where'd I go?" her voice took on a slightly panicky edge.

"Jack! Fix it!"

"I'm fixing, I'm fixing!" hurriedly replied Jack.

Rose promptly flickered back into existence.

"Rose!" the Doctor yelled exuberantly. "Fantastic! Absolutely brilliant!" He went to hug her, but his arms went through her, her body flickering as they went.

"Oh god. I'm a ghost. I'm dead."

"No, no, no! Jack, fix it!"

Jack held in the urge to bash his head in on the console. "I told you, Doctor, without the transdimensional phase PX900 component, she'd be intangible. There is nothing to fix."

"Fix it, fix it, fix it!" the Doctor screamed, acting like a little child in a tantrum.

Rose stared in something akin to horror. "Does he do this often?"

"Every once in a while. The last time he went on a planet was…" Jack paused to tick it off on his fingers, "…a century or so ago. Give or take a few decades. That's when he stole me back, after I jumped TARDIS. Spent about five millennia in my timeline drifting around space, and then he found me again. Before that, he'd kidnapped me from Cardiff after five hundred years alone, trying to figure out how to bring you back. He's…not quite the same as he used to be."

Rose stared at Jack, wide-eyed. She'd completely forgotten about his presence. Oh, she knew he was there; she just hadn't been able to mentally compute that he was there.

"You're dead," she deadpanned.

Jack grinned at her, his first fully flirtatious grin in at least five hundred years. "How do I look? Not dead, I hope?"

Rose grinned at him mischievously. "Bald, actually."

Jack rolled his eyes, avoiding a random swing of the Doctor's cane. "No, really."

"No, really. You're bald. Balding, actually."

Jack looked at her warily. "That isn't funny, Rose."

"You have a bald spot on the back of your head. It's kind of cute, actually."

Jack paled, and quickly put a hand up to feel the back of his head. "My beautiful, beautiful hair!"

"Could be worse," the Doctor chortled, "you could be a disembodied head in a jar!"

Jack and Rose exchanged looks. "Why don't I find that comforting?" Jack asked the air.

Rose blinked, and glowered at Jack. "You are avoiding the point, Jack. Why aren't you dead?"

The Doctor shook his head and swung his cane at Rose. It shimmered through her. "Naughty companions, going behind the Doctor's back!" he growled, before whining and pouting his lower lip, "Talk to me, Rose, talk to me! I'm the one who brought you back!"

"…Brought me back? I'm dead. I knew it; I knew it. And you two did some sort of TARDIS séance and brought me back." Rose looked scared.

Both Jack and the Doctor shook their heads.

"You're a hologram, actually. A representation of your former self with all the memories and feelings of the original Rose Tyler, right down to the last mole! Absolutely brilliant!" the Doctor enthused.

Rose paled, and flickered slightly. "I'm a hologram? A hologram?" She sat down heavily, still floating three feet in the air. "Well, that explains the singing, and the weightless feeling," she mused. "Wait, then why is it the last thing I remember is Tony's first birthday party?"

"Singing?" The Doctor completely ignored her last question.

"The TARDIS, I think. No, I'm pretty sure it's the TARDIS."

The Doctor nodded enthusiastically, "You're a TARDIS-based entity, so it's not surprising."

"Now I'm an entity," she muttered sullenly.

The Doctor continued on, undeterred. "Therefore, you should have unfettered access to the TARDIS control system, the databanks, everything! Brilliant!"

Rose's eyes brightened, and she smiled happily. Forget being a hologram and odd memory loss, information about the Doctor (and Jack's mysterious not-being-dead state) was right at her—holographic—fingertips.

Rose mentally poked the TARDIS, and an excited, yet mournful, deluge of song with the occasional trill mixed in enveloped her.

The two men watched as Rose tilted her head to the side, listening to something neither of them could hear. The Doctor used to be able to hear the TARDIS, but her song disappeared from his head several decades before his brilliant idea. The absence of her presence in his mind only escalated in the deterioration of his mental capacity.

… _Bad Wolf…Embrace our memories…And never forget…_

Rose flickered in and out of their sight as millenia of knowledge and memories passed by her eyes. She glowed brighter, forcing the two observers to shield their eyes. Her hair began to whip around in a wind that only she could feel.

…The TARDIS, growing up as a plant in Jack's Torchwood office…Being moved to a greenhouse by a grieving Ianto after his lover's disappearance…Jack returning, too late, to find that a decade has passed, as well as his lover, the victim of a burglary gone wrong a year after Jack disappeared…Being stolen from Jack by a concerned Time Lord…Theta, stealing the TARDIS…The Doctor's granddaughter, Susan…A different Doctor travelling around with a younger Sarah Jane… Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart…Ace… The Time War…Meeting herself, which was sort of weird…Several years of contemplation, before the Doctor returned for her…Bad Wolf and Jack's resurrection— _I bring life_ …The Doctor abandoning Jack on the Gamestation…Their conversation on Dårlig ulv Stranden— _I love you_ …Donna, in a wedding gown…Martha, in a doctor's coat…Jack hitching a ride on the outside of TARDIS and riding to the end of the universe…The Master's return, and the Year That Never Was… _fixed point in time_ … _They used to call me the Face of Boe_ , their expressions were priceless…Donna again…Jenny, the generated anomaly…Rose's return, which was even weirder than meeting herself…The Doctor-Donna …Rose leaving once again, Doctor copy in tow…Wiping Donna's memory…The Doctor going into seclusion, cutting himself off from the TARDIS…His brilliant idea…Stealing Jack away in front of Martha, Mickey, and his team, not five minutes after he had returned to the Hub…Jack not leaving his room, screaming and crying to return to Ianto and his team…The TARDIS engineering a plan for Jack to escape…An enraged Doctor searching for Jack…The Doctor dragging Jack on board and refusing to let him out of his sight at all times when not in the Time Vortex…The creation of the hologram…A confused Rose hologram appearing on the TARDIS…

The wind blowing around Rose suddenly stopped, and her eyes popped open, focusing on the Doctor, her eyes narrowing at him angrily. She was Rose, she was the Bad Wolf, she was the TARDIS, she was the Time Vortex itself. She did not approve.

" _Doctor_ ," the single word resonated throughout the TARDIS.

" _I bring renewal."_ She swept her unsubstantial hand towards the two of them. The Doctor found himself regaining his mind, all of the cracks caused by the pain and loss he had suffered being patched up. His body repaired itself, and he dropped the cane, no longer needing it anymore. Jack's hair regrew over his bald spot, and regained its vibrancy. His body and mind was repaired, fixing the inevitable damage that his many deaths had caused. No floating head in Jack's future.

The Doctor's eyes widened in horror as he realized what he had done, and what was going on.

"Rose, stop! You don't know what you're doing!" he yelled.

Rose's eyes moved to stare at him. She smiled a devastatingly painful smile. _"Don't I? I am the TARDIS; I am Time Itself. I am the Bad Wolf. And I bring freedom,"_ she breathed, sweeping her hand towards Jack. Jack felt as if a weight was taken off of his back, and the Doctor stumbled as he felt a fixed point in time disappearing. One problem solved, several more to go.

" _I bring release, to guide you and your soul mate. Go home, lonely wanderer,"_ Rose smiled at Jack as he found himself fading from the TARDIS. He had enough time to give her one last heart-stopping smile before he found himself literally falling from a rift in the middle of the Hub, landing on a panicking Ianto who had just seen his lover dragged off by a haggard-looking Doctor into a Public Police Box that had disappeared. One more problem fixed.

Time changed. Jack continued to be the leader of Torchwood Three, and eventually became Jack Harkness-Jones some time later. Ianto was never involved in a burglary, because he was busy attending his honeymoon in Hawaii. The TARDIS stayed firmly in Jack's office, until a visiting Time Lord later stole it. Jack never noticed, nor cared.

The Doctor was in full-fledged panic mode. "Rose! Stop!" The Doctor ran over to the console and tried to release the hologram from the TARDIS. However, despite not being a technician, Jack had managed to tie her in pretty damn good. In addition to that, the TARDIS was busy converting her into an integral part of the TARDIS to prevent tampering by certain Doctors.

" _I open and seal the Rifts. I erase the devourers from time and space,"_ Rose breathed, waving another hand.

The Rift in Cardiff was torn open, spilling out everything that had been trapped in it. As the Daleks, Cybermen, and other dangerous beings appeared, they found themselves being scattered into mere atoms, erased from existence. The Rift immediately closed afterwards, never to be opened again. The same happened to the other Rifts throughout space.

Torchwood was forced to expand after Torchwood Four reappeared. Torchwood One was renamed Torchwood Headquarters. Torchwoods Five, Six, and Seven were also created. Torchwood spent several years finding those who fell from the Rift and placing them in new homes. Thousands of beings, both alien and human, had to adjust to 21st century Earth. Among them was a certain Captain Jack Harkness, formerly of 1941 Cardiff, sucked into the Rift from his fighter plane just in time to escape a fiery death. He never had the nerve to look up Captain James Harper or Toshiko Sato to find out what had happened to them. He didn't want to know; it would be too painful.

Not long after that, Torchwood was assimilated into UNIT, creating the Torchwood-UNIT Organization. No more alien tech appeared to dissect, and no big happenings occurred that would need their aid. Instead, they simply tried to put the alien tech to good use.

The TARDIS was removed from the Torchwood Three office and was instead sent to a Torchwood-UNIT base where the Brig recognized it. He ordered it destroyed, fearing what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands.

The Daleks were efficiently removed from the picture, and never attacked Gallifrey. The Time Wars never occurred, and the Time Lords never died out.

The Doctor was nervously looking at the floor as it disappeared out from under his feet. "What? What! WHAT!"

The hologram of Rose, the TARDIS given voice, the Bad Wolf, the Time Vortex, performed her last duties. " _I bring peace,"_ she waved, flickering and becoming more and more translucent.

The drums in the Master's head slowed to a stop, and Koschei never became the Master. He never became an enemy, and instead became one of the most important figures in the history of Gallifrey.

Rose smiled at the Doctor one last time, tears streaming down her face. " _Doctor, my Doctor…I love you. I bring hope; I bring love. I release you from your duty as a Time Lord. I give you a life to rival that of a Rose's. Go home, Doctor,"_ she grinned, " _and learn how the stupid apes live. I cement everything that has happened, past, present, and future. Feel my presence, even though I am gone."_

The Doctor was erased from their memories, and the presence of Theta was noted briefly, but he disappeared into history. No one ever noticed. Jack never remembered the Year That Never Was, or his adventures with Rose and the Doctor. Instead, he remembered discovering and fixing the problem with the nanogenes, and of falling through the Rift into Cardiff while he was preparing himself to die. He remembered being recruited for Torchwood, and of giving up the Time Agent lifestyle, instead becoming a member and later the leader of Torchwood Three. He remembered meeting and recruiting the love of his life, Ianto Jones, the man he later grew old and had kids with—well, Torchwood had already done the recruiting, he just transferred from Torchwood One shortly after his girlfriend's death in a car accident.

Aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor was preparing for another paradox, and for the Reapers to appear to fix the problem, like they did when Rose interfered with her father's death. It never happened. The TARDIS flickered, and disappeared completely. Rose's image was burned in his eyes, and because of his shock it took him a moment to realize he was lying in the middle of a sidewalk.

"Excuse me, are you alright?" asked a familiar voice.

The Doctor, no, Theta, no, John Smith, looked up from where he was sprawled out.

"Absolutely…" his words faded away when he saw her. Blonde hair, brown eyes, gorgeous smile. He leapt to his feet, practically vibrating with happiness. "Absolutely brilliant! Fantastic, even!"

Rose Tyler smiled at the strange man in the brown coat with the converses, and held out a hand for him to shake. "Rose Tyler."

He smiled delightedly, even as he realized that he was now in the year 2005, on Earth. "John Smith, at your service."

Rose Tyler never met the Doctor. Instead, she met John Smith the day she quit working at Henricks. The kids who had snuck into the basement of the store and scared her with the mannequins had never been caught, even though their antics had resulted in Wilson's heart attack and subsequent death; she refused to work there anymore, not when the security was so iffy. John Smith and Rose Tyler hit it off immediately, to Mickey's horror and Jackie's apparent delight. Jackie's delight dimmed slightly as she got to know him, but she never slapped him, much to his relief.

Several years later, Mickey proclaimed during his best man speech, "Even though I love her, it was never meant to be. When I heard about John's proposal, I consoled myself with the fact that at least she'd share my last name," to the amusement of the various guests at John and Rose Smith's wedding reception.

They later honeymooned at Dårlig ulv Stranden _._


End file.
